Crowdfunding campaign raises thousands to help family of terminally ill former Montrealer

Kalina Laframboise, Montreal Gazette

Published on: June 19, 2015 | Last Updated: June 19, 2015 8:21 PM EDT

Matthew Morton, centre, with his wife, Heidi Wilk, top left and their three children: Zachary, 4 yrs old, left, Joshua 2 yrs old, middle and their daughter, Brooke, top right. A crowdfunding campaign for Matthew Morton, a terminally ill man and his family raised $125k in less than 24 hours.Paula Feig

Heidi Wilk fears raising her three children on her own as her husband’s long and exhausting battle with terminal brain cancer comes to an end.

Matthew Morton, 38, is in the final stages of glioblastoma multiforme. Since 2008, the couple has fought hard for a normal life after Morton was diagnosed with incurable Stage 4 cancer. Over the last month, Morton’s health has declined so quickly he is now in palliative care.

Close friends have stepped in to help the family financially as Wilk stopped working to care for her husband and the couple’s children. They organized a crowdfunding campaign that has raised more than $293,000 in donations in a little over a week. The online fundraiser has elicited more than 1,700 donations.

“It brings some good in all of this bad,” said Wilk, who grew up in Dollard-des-Ormeaux. “I always knew Matthew was special, but I hadn’t realized how many people he had affected.”

Morton, who is from Côte-St-Luc, is a physician who specializes in obstetrics and gynecology. The couple moved to Toronto after Morton finished medical school at McGill University. They met through friends and when Morton moved for his residency, Wilk, a dietitian, followed suit.

The couple bought their first home and had their daughter, Brooke.

In 2008, Morton suffered from a seizure only days before he was scheduled for a medical exam to obtain life insurance. The MRI revealed a brain tumour and Morton was denied coverage.

The initial prognosis gave Morton less than two years to live — three years if he was lucky.

A combination of multiple treatments and surgeries has given Morton seven fulfilling, but exhausting years. Wilk said they lived happily despite the uncertainty that comes with the volatile nature of cancer.

During Morton’s cancer battle, they expanded their family with sons Zachary, 4, and Joshua, 2. Morton’s career blossomed at Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital. He also completed a two-year fellowship, enrolled in a master’s degree in education and obtained a position as an associate professor.

“He’s one of the most hardworking people I have ever met,” Wilk said. “He puts his all into everything. Being a doctor defines him. His passion for medicine is something special.”

Morton’s health took a downward turn during a family trip to San Diego in May. When they arrived home in Toronto, Morton was immediately put into home palliative care.

Some days are good; others are hard. Morton is slowly losing his balance and his ability to understand what is going on around him. Wilk stopped working, but she has tried to maintain some routine for their children.

That is when a group of four friends of the family organized a MyEvent.com fundraiser to help financially support the family. Tara Kaplan, a close friend of Wilk’s, said they wanted to ease some of the stress.

“We wanted to do something special for them. We really wanted to relieve the burden off their shoulders,” Kaplan said. “One of his worries is to provide for his family and we really wanted to take the stress away.”

The group of friends launched the campaign on June 11. The campaign raised $125,000 in 24 hours — something no one expected.

“It blew me away,” said Wilk, who fell off her bed when she saw the amount.

Rob Hirscheimer, the co-founder and president of MyEvent.com, said it was the first time that such a high number was raised in a single day.

“He’s obviously touched a lot of people’s lives,” Hirscheimer said.

Donations initially poured in from Toronto and Montreal, but have since become international. Donors are family, friends, colleagues and complete strangers.

For Wilk, the generosity has eased the hardship of providing for three children on a single salary. She worries about what a future without Morton will bring.

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“I am so scared of being a single mother. I am scared of missing Matthew,” Wilk said. “It’s the little things I’m scared of, like waking up in the morning and not having him there.”

The messages that accompany the donations give the couple comfort. Late at night, Wilk reads over the messages, sometimes alone and sometimes with Morton. She plans to bind the messages in a book for their children so they can know what their father was like and how many lives he touched.

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